Re:Fundamental rule of traffic: building new roads makes peo...
by clairity on Friday December 28, 2018 @05:00PM
(#18779796)
in just economic terms, it means our supply and demand curves are out of whack. we have an insatiable demand for additional roads at the current price level. alternatively speaking, we "use up" all new road capacity because the price is so low (it feels like it costs us nothing extra).
road users are insulated from actual costs, since road costs are both subsidized and pass through an intermediary (government, taxes).
since it's costly, inefficient, and politically unpalatable to directly create an efficient marketplace for roads themselves (by building a bunch of competing ones), economists urge regulators to create a market for road use and price in maintenance costs and externalities (pollution, things that Isinlor mentions): tolling, congestion pricing, gas taxes, etc.
if we correctly price road use and there is still great demand, it means we should build more roads. instead, the perverse logic currently employed is that insatiable demand should be a reason not to build roads because (it seems like) we'd never meet that demand.
road users are insulated from actual costs, since road costs are both subsidized and pass through an intermediary (government, taxes).
since it's costly, inefficient, and politically unpalatable to directly create an efficient marketplace for roads themselves (by building a bunch of competing ones), economists urge regulators to create a market for road use and price in maintenance costs and externalities (pollution, things that Isinlor mentions): tolling, congestion pricing, gas taxes, etc.
if we correctly price road use and there is still great demand, it means we should build more roads. instead, the perverse logic currently employed is that insatiable demand should be a reason not to build roads because (it seems like) we'd never meet that demand.